Robert College, Turkish Gateway to the Future
Thanks to a Boatload of Bread, Yankee Educators in istanbul
Have Forged an Enduring Link Between Asia and the West
BY FRANC SHOR
399
Assistant Editor, National Geographic Magazine
With Photographs by the Author
BESIDE the deep-blue waters of the Bos
porus, East and West meet but do not
touch. High above those waters, on
a hill where Europe gazes into Asia, an Amer
ican college draws the two together.
A boatload of bread brought about the
creation of Robert College, near istanbul, in
1863. In nearly a century of existence the
college has done much to create a better un
derstanding between the United States and
the lands of the Near East. With its sister
school, the American College for Girls, it has
trained men and women of a score of nation
alities who have returned home to lead their
people into the paths of progress.
Students Come from 15 Countries
Dr. Edwin A. Grosvenor, in his monumen
tal two-volume history of Constantinople,
published in 1895, could already see the re
sults of the college's endeavors:
"No institution was ever more opportunely
founded," he wrote admiringly of Robert Col
lege, where he taught for 23 years.
"None
was ever planted at a point of wider and
more enduring influence...."
Today, 62 years after Dr. Grosvenor's en
thusiastic appraisal, the twin colleges have
more than fulfilled his expectations. Nearly
2,000 students of some 15 nationalities come
annually to Istanbul for an education in the
ways of the West. And throughout the area
they serve, Robert College graduates hold
high positions in government and business
and are leaders in the scientific and social life
of their countries.
It is no accident that the beginning of
1957 found a Robert College graduate serving
as Turkey's Ambassador to the United States
and another as Ambassador to the United
Nations.
Praise for the college comes not only from
Westerners. Fahreddin Kerim Gokay, Gov
ernor-Mayor of Istanbul and a Robert grad
uate, voices a profound respect for its ac
complishments.
"Robert College has had a great influence
on our modern Turkish culture," he told me
as we sipped thick coffee in his office in istan
bul's old Sublime Porte.
"And the technical
skills of the graduates do much to speed the
modernization that Turkey needs so badly."
Governor-Mayor Gokay, married to a for
mer student at the American College for Girls,
is an enthusiastic admirer of the work of that
institution as well.
"Its graduates have been leaders among
Turkish women," he told me.
"They have
helped bring their sisters out of seclusion and
into the main stream of Turkish life.
"And the important thing is that the col
leges are an integral part of the Turkish
system. We have grown together, and we
have both profited."
Dr. Duncan S. Ballantine, the lean young
American educator who serves as president
of both colleges, keeps constantly in mind this
unity of growth and purpose.
"We cannot exist as an American island in
a Turkish sea," he told me.
"We must con
tinue as a part of the Turkish way of life."
Seriousness of Purpose Marks Classes
Dr. Ballantine's days are crowded with the
ever-present problems of college presidents
the world over-teachers' salaries, building
funds, endowments-but his primary concern
remains the individual student.
"We don't build dams or factories or high
ways or pass laws," he said.
"We educate
the people who do. Thus our service has a
reproductive capacity. Robert College has
no political ax to grind. It is an outpost
of culture, not foreign policy."
There is much about life on the Robert
College campus that reminded me of my own
student days. Buildings are properly ivy
covered, and young men in slacks and sport
shirts sprawl on the stone wall above the
Bosporus. But step into a physics labora
tory or an engineering classroom and you
encounter an unusual seriousness of purpose,